The Wizard's Challenge

"Lura has to meet her aunt Syndra, whom is visiting town.  She will likely be occupied today.  Is that okay?"  Normand replies.

"Farewell then, We shall meet up when we return. Hopefully we all find some answers."

Croak dons his chainmail but leaves his shield on his pack and weapons in there scabbards as the gang heads out on the trail, led by Joran.

OOC: yeah everyone do their thang, just playing a character.

The group rises and starts heading south towards the bridge.  You pass the stables on your left, which appears to be selling Sathalvir a horse.  The bridge is mostly metal frames with wooden planks.  On either side of the bridge you see sturdy docks, built to survive the strong current.

Nathan, you recognize the large fishing vessel that is Nine Finger John's boat.

To the south of the river are two large warehouses.  Past that is the occasional house.  Joran tells you; "We head east after crossing the river.  There is a hilly area in the plains that holds his home.

“No that’s perfectly fine, visiting family is always important, do you need help getting anything ready”

"Sure."  Normand replies.  If you could help gather up the food supplies, I'd appreciate it."  The two of you quickly pack together the supplies and begin heading north.  As you pass, you notice that the graveyard to the left is surprisingly small for a town's size.

“So, Normand, I need to ask you something, do you know anything about the Lich king”

"Don't believe I've heard of him; though liches are not something you'd want to run off and face.  They tend to be powerful magic users, most often Necromancers, that decide to embrace undeath for immortality and power; vile creatures."  Normand practically spits in disgust.

“Of course not, I’d never want to fight anyway, fighting is such a nasty thing, bringing people apart, I’m sure they’re are times when it’s the only option but still” Urselles looks down a second “anyway shall we head out”

The two of you travel into Old Northbank.  The first thing you notice is that the dirt road steadily becomes less compact and more loose.  The dust seems to get everywhere, and is soon covering a layer of your white robes; you can actually taste it in the air.

The buildings are so deteriorated that they all look long abandoned.  As you pass them, you find that several of them are abandoned; but not all.  The few people you've seen look hungered and worn.  They look almost a part of the dirt, their clothes tattered and ragged.

As Normand turns a corner; a murmur arises as talk of the priest quickly spread.  As you are turning the corner, you see a dozen people eagerly heading towards Normand.  A moment later many of them see you and scream in fear, running and yelling; "The Goblins are back!"  

Normand is trying to call them down.  But not really succeeding.

Urselles looked at the crowd now running in fear and sighed, the Goblin bowed her head for a second and muttered a small prayer to her goddess

Normand is able to calm down most of them, but not all.  A small child cautiously approaches you.

Nathan points to John Nine Fingers' boat: "That is John Nine Fingers' fishing boat, just so that you know." Then he turns to Joran: "Joran, what can you tell us about the hermit, what is he like and how is the place where he lives, what should we expect?" Then to the others: "Do you guys have a plan? Are we just going to tell him the truth and hope that he helps, or will we try to improvise? I mean he may still be loyal to his master, for all we know."

Urselles looks at the child giving him a disarming smile

To answer Nathan, Shalech says, "We'll start by asking for help to decipher the journal, but we won't tell him we have it, nor will we tell him I'm who I am.  The problem is if he recognizes me somehow, or refuses to tell us how to decipher the journal.  Then we'd have to improvise.  I really think it's important he doesn't find out I have the journal with me.  If he insists on seeing it to help decipher, we'll ask him to come to Dar's and do it there."

"I was thinking exactly that, that he might even recognize you, and we have no idea how he would react. Shalech, I know this is about who you are and what happened to you, but I really think you should just stay in the background, and someone else should do the talking. He might even be dangerous for you, who knows what he knows about what happened to you? What if there is something terrible inside you and he knows how to control it?"

"Are you volunteering to take the lead with the Hermit?" Shalech asks.

The child reaches out and grabs ahold of Urselles' robe, and then stands next to you, looking at Normand.  Normand begins explaining; "This is a friend; her name is Urselles, she is a child of Eldath."  Slowly the crowd calms down, excluding those that already ran off.

Urselles takes a look at the child "hi, don't worry, from what I've heard you've had trouble with other goblins but I promise we're not all like that"

The child smiles widely.  Now that things have mostly calmed down, Normand begins moving through the crowd, giving a bit of food and coin to each; though not much.  What seemed like a lot of supplies when you were gathering them up, doesn't seem enough as it quickly dwindles down.

Urselles looks at the twindlng supplies "How many of them are there"